The 38-year-old actress and her husband Javier Bardem, 43, already have a son Leonardo, two.

It would mean yet more joy for the Cruz family - just last month Penelope's sister Monica, 35, announced she is expecting a baby via an anonymous sperm donor.

Penelope gave birth to the couple's first child in January 2011, six months after the pair married in a low-key ceremony in the Caribbean with only a few relatives present.

The pair started a romance in 2007 after starring together in the Woody Allen movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona. (Penelope previously dated her Vanilla Sky co-star Tom Cruise and her Sahara co-star Matthew McConaughey.)

The couple have known one another more than 20 years after meeting on the set of her debut film, the Spanish comedy drama Jamon Jamon, when the actress was 18.

Penelope gushed about motherhood in an interview with Vogue in June 2011, saying: 'From the first second, you feel so much love.

'It is a revolutionary experience. That's the best way I can describe it. It transforms you completely, in a second.

'Nature is very wise and gives you nine months to prepare, but in that moment, when you see that face, you are transformed forever.'